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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah home prices fell 1.6 percent in the third quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year, according to a federal report.
Utah isn't alone -- prices fell in 41 states in the third quarter of 2008, according to figures from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Nationwide, home values dropped 4 percent.
In Utah, four of the state's five most-populated areas ranked 111 or below among the 292 metropolitan areas nationwide that were ranked for home-price appreciation.
The lone bright spot for Utah is Logan, which ranked 8th nationally as its home prices appreciated 4.5 percent.
Even some of the state's hottest markets are cooling.
In and around St. George, home prices rose 73 percent between March 2003 and March 2008. But home prices fell 8.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008 compared to the same period last year. The area now ranks 235th among those on the national index.
Salt Lake City -- now ranked at 157 -- say a 1.8 percent drop over last year.
Cyrus Thorpe and his wife figured last summer they could have sold their home near downtown Salt Lake City for $175,000. But, with the economic crunch, they listed it at $164,000 several weeks ago. "Nobody looked at it," Thorpe told The Salt Lake Tribune. "When we dropped the price to $151,000, we had three people look at it and we got one offer."
Prices in the Provo and Orem areas fell about 3 percent. Home prices in the Ogden-Clearfield area dropped less than half a percent.
The housing agency's seasonally adjusted, purchase-only house price index is based on data from repeat home sales.
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Information from: Deseret News
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
